The Good Shepherd Series

INTRODUCTION

A couple of weeks ago, we started a new series for the afternoon services, looking at WHO JESUS IS.

In the Bible, God the Father and Jesus have many titles and descriptions. They tell us something about God the Father or Jesus. When Jesus was crucified, Pilate had a notice prepared and put on the cross. It said, ‘This is Jesus, the king of the Jews.’ That’s a great title and description for Jesus. In the broadest sense, Jews are God’s people. We are Jews! But I don’t want to go into the theology of that now.

Jesus put a lot of emphasis on who he is. Near the middle of Matthew, Mark and John, Jesus asks his disciples, ‘Who do people say I am?’ Then he asks them, ‘But who do YOU say I am?’ In John’s gospel Jesus makes seven famous statements that tell us who he is, for example, ‘I am the bread of life’, ‘I am the light of the world’ and so on. It's important to Jesus that we understand who he is.

‘Who’ questions are important. If you know that the woman you’re talking to at the surgery is a doctor, you’ll tell her about your health problems and you’ll probably take her advice about what to do. If you know that the man in the car with blue flashing lights is a police officer, you’ll probably pull over. But the most important ‘Who?’ question of all is, ‘Who is Jesus?’ If we know who Jesus is, we can relate to him correctly. And if we know who he is, we can do a better job of being like him. Today, we’re going to look at one of Jesus’ famous ‘I am’ statements in John’s gospel: ‘I am the good shepherd.’ I’m first going to give a bit of context, then we’ll look at what Jesus said.

The shepherd in the Old Testament

I want to briefly pick up a few things we can learn about shepherds from the Old Testament.

One thing we can say about shepherds in the Old Testament was that they were caring. David described God as his shepherd. God, as his shepherd, made him lie down in green pastures. He led him beside still waters. He restored his soul. He led him in paths of righteousness. God cared for David.

Another thing we can say about shepherds in the Old Testament was that they were tough. David told Saul that in his job as shepherd he’d fought with both lions and bears.

A third thing we can say about shepherds in the Old Testament is that God sees the job of being a king as very similar to the job of being a shepherd. God told David, ‘You shall be shepherd of my people Israel’ [2 Samuel 5:2].

A final thing we can say about shepherds in the Old Testament is that God promised that a day would come when HE would be shepherd of his people! God tells Ezekiel: ‘For thus says the Lord God … I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep…’ Then God continues: ‘And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them he shall feed them and be their shepherd’ [Ezekiel 34:23].

Ezekiel lived 300 or more years after King David. But God said that he would set his servant David over his people! The David who God is talking about is Jesus. He is the shepherd whom God would set over his people. So, when Jesus said, ‘I am the good shepherd’, he was fulfilling Ezekiel’s prophecy.

The shepherd today

There are hardly any shepherds in Britain today. But there are shepherds in other countries. Priscilla and I lived in Azerbaijan for many years. We lived in a part of Azerbaijan where the plains in the centre of Azerbaijan meet the Lower Caucasus mountains. Every spring, as it started to get hotter, shepherds would bring their flocks along a dusty road and take them to high pastures up in the mountains. Many years, we went up the same mountains and saw the shepherds. During the day the shepherds would be constantly with the sheep, perched on a little hillock, watching what was going on, in all weathers. There were wolves and bears in the mountains and the shepherds had large sheep dogs to guard the sheep at night. You really would not want to mess with those dogs.

So, shepherds today are very much like the shepherds in the Old Testament. They care for the sheep. They are committed to the sheep. And they are very tough and resilient.

What Jesus tells us

Let’s turn now to what Jesus tells us when he describes himself as the Good Shepherd.

The passage comes in the first half of John 10. Jesus starts by saying, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you…’ I don’t believe Jesus is introducing a new subject out of nowhere. He’s reflecting on something that has just happened. What happened in the previous chapter?